RIVER FALLS, Wis. (AP) — A brief sting is all employees of a Wisconsin technology company said they felt Tuesday when they received a microchip implant in their hand that will allow them to open doors, log onto computers or buy breakroom snacks by simply waving their hand.

Three Square Market, also known as 32M, said 41 of its 85 employees agreed to be voluntarily microchipped during a "chip party" at company headquarters in River Falls.

Melissa Timmins, vice president of sales at 32M, said she was initially apprehensive but decided to give the chip a chance.

"I planned for the worst and it wasn't bad at all," said Timmins, who received a microchip in her left hand on Monday. "Just a little *****."

But marketing executive Katie Langer passed, citing health concerns related to putting a foreign object into her hand, while noting the chip received approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 2004.

"But that's still not very long term in my book, so I'd just like to know more about the long-term health effects," Langer said, adding that she is not ruling out a future implant of the $300 microchip paid for by Three Square Market .

Company leaders said this is the first U.S. appearance of technology already available in Europe.

Officials said the data in the microchip is encrypted and does not use GPS, so it cannot be used to track employees or obtain private information. The company hopes the microchips eventually can be used on everything from air travel to public transit and storing medical information.

Professor Jeremy Hajek of the Illinois Institute of Technology said microchipping started years ago with veterinarians implanting the device in dogs and cats that might get lost.

"And so there's a little bit of a... demeaning factor that this is what they do to little animals," Hajek said.

But Noelle Chesley, an associate professor of sociology at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, said she thinks implanting microchips into employees — and all people — is the wave of the future.

Many of those at the edge of developing those technologies "believe we are going to be combining technology in our bodies," Chesley said.

River Falls company offers to implant chips in its employees … but won’t track them By The Washington Post | PUBLISHED: July 25, 2017 at 7:00 am | UPDATED: July 26, 2017 at 12:03 pm

Asking an employee to get a chip implanted may sound invasive and intrusive, but one company in River Falls, Wis., will be giving it a try.

Three Square Market — a developer of “micro market” vending facilities for workplaces — is offering all of its employees the option to get a microchip implanted between the thumb and forefinger. It’s quick, painless and the company will even pick up the $300 fee. And don’t worry — there’s no GPS tracking capability … yet.

The company is expecting 50 of its employees to voluntarily sign up for the implants.

The Radio Frequency ID chips would allow those employees who volunteer to participate in the program to open doors, pay for purchases, share business cards, store medical information, pay for stuff at other RFID terminals and log in to their computers, all with a wave of the hand.

“Eventually, this technology will become standardized allowing you to use this as your passport, public transit, all purchasing opportunities, etc.,” chief executive Todd Westby, a Lake Elmo resident, wrote in a blog post that claims the program is the first of its kind in the United States.

The program is also meant to be a real-life opportunity for Westby’s company to test and expand the technology for its own products. “We see this as another payment and identification option that not only can be used in our markets but our other self-checkout and self-service applications that we are now deploying which include convenience stores and fitness centers,” added another company executive.

A Swedish organization named Epicenter began doing the same thing earlier this year and its workers seem to love it.

“People ask me; ‘Are you chipped?’ and I say; ‘Yes, why not,'” one Epicenter employee said in this AP report from April. “And they all get excited about privacy issues and what that means and so forth. And for me it’s just a matter of I like to try new things and just see it as more of an enabler and what that would bring into the future.”

The technology in itself is not new. Such chips are used as virtual collar plates for pets. Companies use them to track deliveries. It’s just never been used to tag employees on a broad scale before. Epicenter and a handful of other companies are the first to make chip implants broadly available.

And as with most new technologies, it raises security and privacy issues. While biologically safe, the data generated by the chips can show how often an employee comes to work or what they buy. Unlike company swipe cards or smartphones, which can generate the same data, a person cannot easily separate themselves from the chip.

“Of course, putting things into your body is quite a big step to do and it was even for me at first,” Patrick Mesterton, co-founder and CEO of Epicenter, told the AP.

There's a difference to me about chipping an animal...and a person...and I can't think of any reason why Id let anyone put a chip in me... Any chip they can put in me, they can put in a card that I can leave someplace or throw out if I no longer want/need it.

So let me get this straight, the chip can open doors, turn computer on and off and purchase snacks in the snack room.

Since we can be located by our cell phones, I don't think the management has to track us.

What bothers me is that this technology can track people and may not be used in the best ways in the future.

Now, if the chip can change red lights to green; open retail establishment doors with a wave of your hand, like Darth Vader, and make Bamasux fumble every time they take a snap in football, then I will have to revisit this situation in the future.

My concern would be the definition of criminal would change. It isn't difficult to imagine a heavy handed government chipping someone because they spanked their kid in public or were doing 35 in a 25 mph zone.

Worse yet, bad people would be able to find all of your good fishing spots...

And this will help me catch bass how? Can it automatically control my casting accuracy? (Like control spool speed so I quit hooking those hog trees?)

It must be nice to be retired on a serious note though, how do they get the chip out if you decide you don't want to work there anymore??? I'm definitely not getting chipped, unfortunately one day it means all who say no will probably be starving, homeless, or just put down. Indianafinesse hit the nail on the proverbial head!